Sex-love: Serena faulted for vamping it up for ad

Stephanie Gardiner

It sounds like porn, but it's actually an advertisement for a tennis videogame, starring champion Serena Williams.

Dressed in thigh-high boots and a skimpy leotard Williams, dubbed "The World's Sexiest Tennis Player", takes on self-professed "geek" actress Rileah Vanderbilt in a game of 2K Sports' Top Spin 4.

The video, which drew mixed reactions from female sporting advocates who saw the clip, has been doing the rounds online.

Advertisement

Johanna Adriaanse, co-chair of the International Working Group on Women and Sport, said it was a shame when sportswomen used sex to build their profile.

Serena Williams was an amazing athlete who should be proud of her powerful body and how she used it on the tennis court, Ms Adriaanse said.

"The main thing is if she's good looking that's fine, but there's a difference between being good looking and looking after your body and actually using the body just as a sexualised object to gain media coverage.

"I really think that sportswomen, with great bodies, with great performances, they should first and foremost be valued and respected for their performances on the fields, like they do with sportsmen usually."

The video was supposedly "leaked" and 2K Sports have distanced themselves from the ad, saying it was not their official campaign and was one of many marketing avenues they explored.

A much more subdued ad for the game is also online, instead showing clips from the game itself.

Kay de Bry, president of the Women In Sport Foundation, said Williams has every right to star in a raunchy video.

"She didn't have to do this to get attention," Ms de Bry said.

"She played good tennis and that's where she got all the attention and she's just having a bit of fun, I'd say."

Williams is known for wearing flamboyant and risque outfits on the court, including a lacy red and black dress during the French Open last year and a short green dress at the Australian Open.

Ms de Bry said the video was particularly "tame" compared to flesh-coloured underpants she wore on court that gave the illusion that she was wearing nothing at all.

"It just shows they're human in a way. I think it doesn't hurt women's sport.

"And it lifts the profile in some ways because basically you're dealing with the media and they like to see sensational things."

"I don't think it's harming women's sport in any way."

Ms Adriaanse said sportspeople can build their profiles by instead doing community and charity work.

Australian athletes like swimmer Libby Trickett, netballer Catherine Cox and Ellyse Perry, who plays soccer and cricket, are good examples of women who have avoided using sex to promote their careers, she said.

"There is of course the underlying problem there that women's sport gets so much less coverage in the media than men's sport.

"I think there are other ways to address that than profiling sexy sportswomen."